Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Simple deliciousness, that's what. This corn salad recipe is one of my favorite summer side dishes. It's a perfect complement to just about any meat you pull off the grill, and can be dressed in countless ways.

This time, since I had just made and filmed a light, creamy Italian dressing, I decided to try this particular combo, and it was wonderful. The garlicky tang of the mayo-spiked vinaigrette balancing the sweetness of the corn like we all knew it would.

By the way, there is nothing wrong with using frozen (great quality, preferably organic) corn. I love fresh vegetables, and use them 95% of the time, but every good chef has a bag of sweet peas, and bag of corn in the freezer.

Of course this salad would be amazing with freshly shaved corn right off the stalk in August, but we don't always have the time or energy, and in that case, this recipe will do just fine.

Special thanks to Michele's friend Robert, who provided the wild boar you see pictured on the finished plate. As luck would have it, we received this much appreciated gift right before the Cochon555 event, so not only did I taste dozens of pork dishes that night, for our lunch before the pig fest we ate… wild pork!

It was awesome! I can't wait until wild pig is regularly available in the meat case at your local markets. The taste of this meat, how pork used to taste (or so I've heard), is so much richer, meatier, and flavorful, there's no comparison. Enjoy!

25 comments:

Gosh, now I don't know which I'll bring to the Fourth of July potluck? This looks awesome, but so does my previous choice, the Rhubarb Crisp. We've been invited to spend the 4th with dear friends, and to another party with a large group of great neighbors, so, If we can manage to attend each for awhile, I'll make both; salad for the neighborhood, and dessert for the evening with friends. Problem solved!

Good lesson milkshake... the misuse of English grammar and language is very often overlooked, sadly because many of the errors are more common to our eye than their correct use. For the most part, overworked, underpaid, with no copy editor or staff to assist, the very skilled and talented Chef John does a great job most of the time describing his thoughts and recipes, and he almost always appreciates our corrections when he messes up.

Hi Chef John, I'm thinking of making this salad recipe sometime soon so if I don't have red wine vinegar can I substitute with white vinegar or apple cider vinegar? Or would it totally destroy the taste? In Sydney they sell the supermarket roasted pepper's which come in red and yellow peppers and you can order them according to weight (grams). They have a touch of olive oil and maybe a bit of vinegar on them. Would those be alright or maybe I should look for canned red peppers instead (if they sell them)?

I made the dressing using your aioli, and omitted the garlic though. I also made your prosciutto wrapped asparagus, and just some plain ol' bbq chicken breasts. Everyone kept asking if I was a chef (which I'm clearly not), and made sure to give good mention to your site. :)

Thanks so much for rescuing my day on a very last minute lunch for 8 people!

So, with the dressing that I had left after this delicious salad, I made a different salad a few days later: fresh baby spinach, red apple, jicama, bacon bits, and sunflower seeds. With THIS dressing it was just perfect.

I love roasted corn, one of my favorite vegetable side dishes. I do something a little different, basically I was roasting a lot of vegetables, so I decided to add corn to my mix and took out some stuff in it's place and ended up with a nice sweet corn salad. I roast thick onion slices with corn kernels and and diced red peppers, and garlic in the oven tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and any herb works really for roasting but specifically oregano for vegetables. Doesn't get any easier than that.

Oh my...I grilled the corn and red pepper. Made the dressing and refrigerated for 4 hrs. Put it together and oh, oh, oh. I figured since the grill was on that I would make your asparagus too. The one in foil. All I can say is WOW!!! Thanks!